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Looking Ahead

Looking Ahead

As 2007 ends, I thought you may be interested in our plans for 2008. We recently surveyed nearly 500 Government Technology readers to gauge your satisfaction with our current coverage and determine where you want expanded content in the future.

What did we learn? First of all, I'm happy to report that most of you -- more than 80 percent -- find Government Technology relevant or highly relevant to your professional lives.

You also told us you're satisfied with our coverage of key government areas, such as justice and public safety, health and human services, and administration and finance. But there also are areas where you want more, and we intend to use that information to focus our efforts next year.

By functional area, here are the most popular subjects for increased coverage: Nearly 40 percent of respondents want more information on professional development and training. Almost 30 percent want more reporting on project and program management. More than 26 percent want to know more about successful project funding strategies. IT governance and homeland security also drew heavy interest, with more than 20 percent of respondents requesting more attention on each of those topics.

On the technology side, 30 percent of you want to read more about information security. Nearly 25 percent of respondents asked for more coverage on work force issues, such as staff recruitment and retention, as well as green technology.

These results certainly make sense given the key challenges facing states and localities. The looming retirement wave is expected to hit government IT shops hard, with a recent report from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers predicting state IT departments could lose nearly 30 percent of their staffs. Security threats are growing in number and sophistication, making the job of safeguarding government assets and data tougher than ever. And state and local government IT professionals face mounting pressure to cut data center power consumption, and support telework and other practices that reduce their jurisdiction's carbon footprint.

Our goal for 2008 is to bring you job-critical information on these and other issues. In January, we'll launch regular coverage of project funding techniques, as well as expanded "how-to" information on a range of practical topics. We're also planning expanded research-based features on information security, work force development and other key issues.

Thanks for reading in 2007. We look forward to bringing you even more of what you need in 2008. See you next year.